Characteristic of back fat and quality of longissimus dorsi muscle from soft fat pork carcasses

The objective of this study was to investigate the accuracy of visual discrimination of soft fat pork carcasses when subjecting carcasses to quality grade evaluations. In addition, the quality of the longissimus dorsi muscle from soft fat carcasses was investigated. Iodine values of back fat from soft fat carcasses evaluated by visual discrimination were significantly higher than those from firm fat carcass (p < 0.05). However, those values were lower than the standard for soft fat (iodine value = 70). There were no significant differences in linoleic acid content, b-values, and L-values (p < 0.05) of back fat between firm and soft fat carcasses evaluated by visual discrimination. Color of longissimus dorsi muscle from soft fat carcasses (iodine value higher than 70) was not different from that of firm fat carcass (iodine value lower than 70). Except for linoleic acid, there were no significant differences in any fatty acid contents between longissimus dorsi muscles from firm fat and soft fat carcasses. Monounsaturated fatty acid content of longissimus dorsi muscles from soft fat carcasses was significantly lower than those of firm fat carcass (p < 0.05). However polyunsaturated fatty acid content was significantly higher (p < 0.05) in longissimus dorsi muscles from soft fat carcasses. In conclusion, visual discrimination results for soft fat pork carcass were inaccurate. Therefore, other indicators should be required to evaluate soft fat pork carcasses. In contrast, the quality of longissimus dorsi muscle from soft fat carcasses was superior in terms of fatty acid composition compared with that of firm fat carcasses.